This week showed only slight Monarch movements. However, numbers remain locally high and there are many fresh, recently emerged ones. Caterpillars and chrysalises are still common in proximity to milkweeds.

Census Totals: Monarchs per hour

9-22: 125.36

9-23: 158.00

9-24: 26.44

9-25: 5.08

9-26: 6.10

9-27: 9.15

9-28: 88.00

Monarchs per hour for Week 4: 59.56

Mean monarchs per hour cumulative: 64.62

Members of the Monarch Monitoring Project: Dick Walton, Patsy Eickelberg, and Bradley Smith were interviewed this past week by NBC 40. A link to the story and news segment as it aired on television can be found here. Hopefully, this link will stay active for some time...

This past week saw the first big push of migrating Monarchs for 2007. Large numbers rode the cold front on Saturday. Still, even after they left en mass on Monday, many seem to be staying around, even when previous years data suggest that conditions should not be putting them in Cape May County. This may mean that there are an incredible number of Monarchs around, in general. This is looking li

ke it may be an especially good year. Stay tuned.

Census Totals: Monarchs per hour

9-15: 123.10

9-16: 229.52

9-17: 156.00

9-18: 107.59

9-19: 66.32

9-20: 77.45

9-21: 162.86

Monarchs per hour for Week 3: 133.56

Mean Monarchs per hour cumulative: 66.25

The first Long-tailed Skipper was found this week on Cape May Point. Keep an eye out for these and other semi-tropical emigrants. Insects of all kinds are proving especially abundant and it is a wonderful time to have a butterfly garden.

This past weekend was the first big push of migrating Monarch butterflies this season. Census figures showed the butterflies arriving Saturday afternoon. Huge roosts could be found in Cape May Point State Park by the hawk watch pavilion and at the end of the blue trail, numbering individuals into the hundreds. Sunday evening there was an especially large roost on Stites Ave. in Cape May Point, with an estimated 1,000 monarchs in one small grove of red cedar and aspen (Photo by Michael O'Brien).

Roosts like these are common during the peek of migration, especially after cold fronts like the one that occurred this weekend. Monarchs are believed to roost together as protection against cold and predators, as they mimic the dead leaves of a tree. Look for roosting Monarchs in Cape May Point, Stone Harbor, Avalon, or any area of sheltering trees when their local numbers are high.

Wind conditions have encouraged many of these Monarchs to leave, heading south. There are still many around, and many can be seen making their way across the bay to Delaware as wind remains favorable.

Monarch migration continued this week with good numbers. Conditions were all and all not that great for Monarchs moving, but good numbers were around, fueling up on nectar and storing fats they will need for the long migration. Monarchs eat almost nothing while overwintering in the mountain forests of Mexico and live off of stored fats, so it is extremely important that they bulk up here in some of Cape May's more luxuriously planted gardens while they wait for good conditions to catch the wind and (hopefully) head south.

Conditions have brought many other southern butterfly species to Cape May. Cloudless Sulfurs are in good numbers and there were the first reports of Fiery Skipper and Pipevine Swallowtail for the year.

Census Totals: Monarchs per Hour

9-8: 20.72

9-9: 13.33

9-10: 18.88

9-11: 12.45

9-12: 32.63

9-13: 50.18

9-14: 19.65

Monarchs per hour for Week 2: 33.45

Mean Monarchs per hour cumulative: 24.25

Monarch tagging demonstrations have also begun. They are held every day except tuesday and thursday at the pavilion by the hawk watch platform in Cape May Point State Park at 2:00PM. It's free and you may have the chance to release a Monarch. You can learn all about the migration, ask questions, and even adopt a Monarch.

For those who are interested in some multimedia content, project supervisor Dick Walton has some fantastic video of Monarchs, Milkweed, and a others here.

The cold front on September 1st brought good numbers of Monarchs with it. We continue to see them in between fronts nectaring in the gardens of Cape May. There are still quite a few individuals around that do not appear to be part of the migratory generation, but rather the summer generations whose males still aggressively patrol their own little patch of flowers and whose females still seek out milkweed to lay eggs. These adults will not make the long trip to Mexico, but rather will produce more who will. Now is a prime time to find monarch caterpillars (like the one in the photo).

Census Totals: Monarchs per hour

9-1: 49.09

9-2: 51.11

9-3: 27.06

9-4: 46.15

9-5: 62.14

9-6: 45.26

9-7: 18.55

Monarchs per hour for Week 1:_42.95

There are now Monarch interpretive displays at both CMBO Northwood Center and the Nature Center of Cape May, complete with live caterpillars!

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Cape May Autumn Hawkwatch - September 1 to November 30

Sunrise to 5:00 P.M. every day. Join the CMBO official hawk counter, Mary Raikes, and interpretive naturalists Emily Wilmoth, Margeaux Maerz, and Jordan Rogan at the Hawkwatch Platform at the Cape May Point State Park under one of the greatest hawk migrations in North America. Flights totaling more than 1,000 hawks per day occur several times each autumn. The Hawkwatch is a partnership project with the N.J. Division of Parks and Forestry.

Click for the migration forecast

Songbird Morning Flight Project - August 15 to October 31

Four hours beginning at sunrise every day. Migrant songbirds move past the northwest corner of Cape Island every morning in the fall. Join other observers at the small observation tower just south of the jetty parking area at Higbee Beach. Turn right onto the unpaved road at the west end of New England Road to access the viewing tower. This year's morning flight counter is Glen Davis; swing counter for this and the other watches is Tom Reed.